Today, we celebrate Mary as the Mother of God as we welcome in the new year. Mary is always an important part of our Catholic consciousness, but even more so this time of the year. We not only hear a lot about Mary during Advent and Christmas in her connection to Christ’s birth, but in the past month, we also had the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, in addition to the solemnity that we celebrate today. Even though Mary has a unique role in our history of salvation and in the story of Jesus, Protestants and Catholics alike can have misconceptions about Mary’s role in our Catholic faith. As a priest, when people ask me about our Catholic faith, many questions often revolve around Mary and her role in our faith. I am structuring my homily around some questions we are asked about Mary.
To begin with, we might ask ourselves: Why exactly would we celebrate a solemnity of Mary as the Mother of God? This title does not come directly from Scripture, but it evolved in the Early Church and was defined as a dogma of our Catholic faith at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. Mary was defined as “the Mother of God” rather than “the Mother of Jesus” because it was a part of the discussion the Early Church fathers had about the divinity and humanity of Jesus. The Church did not want to give the impression that his divinity and humanity are two independent components of his being. By referring to Mary as the Mother of God, the Church confirms that Jesus is one person that is at the same time fully human and fully divine. The title “Mother of God” gives us deeper understanding of Jesus, since we must always remember that Mary does not direct honor and glory to herself, but rather her role in our faith is to always point us in the direction of Jesus.
One of my favorite Catholic writers, Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, tells this amusing story. There once was an elderly man who came to the shrine of Mary, Mother of God to pray there each day. Jesus himself heard the prayers of this devout believer, and wanted to show him a sign that blessings would certainly come to him. So, Jesus as the Christ child appeared to this man right above the altar of this beautiful shrine in place of the statue of Mary that was normally there. Seeing the Christ child in front of him instead of Mary, the old man was irritated, and cried out: “Go away, little boy. I am here to talk to your mama.” This illustrates the devotion that we Catholics traditionally have to Mary, how we can so naturally relate to the motherly love, how we see her not only as Jesus’ mother, the Mother of God, but our mother, the mother of our Church. So we might ask: Is it ok to pray to Mary? I think a better way to describe it is to say that we pray through Mary and with Mary. We don’t worship Mary as God, we don’t see her as an equal to God. Rather, Mary is an intercessor who prayers for us and with us, who strengthens our faith and who nurtures us with motherly love.
So, how can we see Mary today as modern Catholics? How can we see her as a model of faith? Mary has always been a part of our faith story, but she has been interpreted in different ways as our Catholic faith has developed throughout our human history. At times, she has been held up as a model of a believer who was docile and passive, submissive and unquestioning. Yet, even in today's short Gospel passage, as we hear how the shepherds visit Mary and Jesus in the manger, how Mary pondered what she heard from the shepherds in her heart. Mary does not follow blindly, but rather thinks, reflects, ponders, meditates, and makes up her own mind. Mary is formed by her Jewish faith traditions, but she makes the decision to accept God’s will for her in her life. Through Mary’s courage and strength of character, she truly becomes Christ’s first disciple.
As someone who came to the Catholic faith as an adult from a Protestant upbringing, I can honestly say that Mary has played a major role in helping me grow in my Catholic faith and in bringing me to the Church. Today, as we welcome in the new year of 2018, as we celebrate the day where we pray for peace throughout our world, as we honor Mary as the Mother of God, let us ask Mary for her prayers and intercessions, to help us, to guide us, to be with us as we journey in faith.
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